The present invention relates to an information process system and an information process method for, for example, a server system for document filing, etc., to which a digital scanner such as a digital copying machine, for example, is connected.
According to some kind of a conventional network scanner system, a read document image is automatically registered in a plurality of application systems.
However, in a network scanner system based on a digital copying machine, etc., there are limitations to operational environments because importance is placed on easy operations. For example, there are limitations to a character input environment such as keyboard, and to a display environment such as a display device. Document attributes (title information) which can be set on a document to be registered are limited and fixed. Owing to such limitations, it is necessary, for example, to install different software items on individual transfer destination systems, or to temporarily provide all users with the right of access to a read and automatically registered document. There has been a demand to improve these disadvantages in view of the management and handling of office documents.
In such limited operational environments, in order to enhance affinity between the transfer destination application system and the network scanner system and improve the handling of documents by the user, it is important to reflect the operational environment of the transfer destination application system on the operational environment of the network scanner system.
There are the following problems with the above-described prior art.
Since the input means in an input device of a digital copying machine is limited to numeral keys or the like, it is difficult to directly log in to the transfer destination system. Since the direct log-in is not permitted despite the digital copying machine being shared by a great number of non-specified users, the user cannot be specified in the transfer destination system.
Moreover, since users cannot be specified despite the digital copying machine being shared by the users, an input/registered document needs to be temporarily shared by all users and it is difficult to keep privacy of the read document.
When information on a destination system for document transfer registration is set as a definition of a button, it is difficult to set information dependent on the system. Where a document is transferred to a plurality of systems at a time, registration information management is complex.
In addition, when a document is transferred from a digital copying machine to another system, the digital copying machine has to perform its own time-consuming user management in order to keep correspondence to user management in the transfer destination system.
Where a document image scanned by the digital copying machine is directly stored in databases of transfer destination systems and an exclusive user for the digital copying machine is set and the document is automatically registered on a plurality of databases on the network under the authority of the user, the right of access to each database by the user needs to be set. There is a problem of security if the right of access to all databases is set by the user ID which is, in fact, shared by a great number of non-specified users.
As regards operation buttons on a conventional digital copying machine, metadata obtainable at the time of operations is limited, for example, to operation time, read setting value, etc. It is difficult to use such data in a title to be prepared when the document image is registered on the database. Furthermore, the means for associating such information items as attributes of the document registered in the transfer destination system is poor and difficult to handle.